This is a great article on The Power Of Perpetual Adoration by Mother Adela, SCTJM

The Great Promise: “I will be with you until the end of time.” (Mt 28:20)

The Eucharist is “God with us,” the Immanuel. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” (Jn 1:14)….And still dwells…“I am with you always, until the end of the age” (Mt 28:20). He is with us in order to actualize all of his saving and sanctifying power in each generation. “His mercy reaches from generation to generation” the Blessed Virgin told us in the Magnificat (Lk 1:54-55). In this proclamation the power of the Eucharist is already proclaimed.

The Eucharist is truly Christ substantially present among us – His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. His Heart, His sentiments, His mind, His desires, His love. All of Him. Giving Himself to man for love.

The Eucharist is the Great Gift of the Love of Jesus

The Eucharist is the excellent gift of love of Jesus towards men. St. Johntells us, “He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end” (Jn 13,1). “To the end” means that He stopped at nothing, absolutely nothing, to manifest His love. Jesus told Saint Margaret Mary, “Here is the Heart that has so loved men that it has stopped at nothing, to the point of consuming itself, to manifest its love to them” (cf. Autobiography of St. Margaret Mary).

He has loved us to the extreme of giving Himself for our salvation. He has stopped at nothing, to the point of giving us His Body, His Blood, and His Heart on the Cross, and he continues to do so in the Sacred Eucharist. He continues giving Himself to us in order to give us the graces and treasures of His Heart – just as He told Saint Margaret Mary: “My divine Heart is so inflamed with love for man, that not being able to contain the flames of its ardent love, it must distribute them and manifest them to mankind to enrich them with the treasures of my Heart” (cf. From a letter written to Fr. Croiset, SJ on November 3, 1689. Found in The Letters of St. Margaret Mary Alacoque).

It is that intensity of love which the Heart of Jesus manifests in the Blessed Sacrament. As Saint Angela of Foligno told us, “Oh Jesus, You instituted this Sacrament, not with the thought of gaining something from it, but only because You were moved by love, which has no other measure than being immeasurable. You instituted this Sacrament because Your love exceeds all possible words. Enflamed with love for us, You desire to give Yourself to us and to make the Consecrated Host Your dwelling place, eternally and for always, until the end of time.”

However, “Love is not Loved”

Saint Francis would shout this through the streets ofAssisi. For him, the Eucharist was the greatest sign of the love of Christ, who is capable of such humility and meekness. “May everything in man shake and may the entire world fall back before the love and humility of Christ! Oh, how much love – and how few love Him, how few accompany Him, how few adore Him.” In all churches, and wherever the Eucharist was found, Saint Francis would stop to adore and to sing, with his heart inflamed, the praises and glories of the Eucharistic Jesus. He would purposely choose the empty and abandoned churches where the Eucharist was even less adored, in order to make up for the love that men denied to Christ.

One time Saint Francis was asked what the greatest thing he could do for Jesus was. Without hesitating he answered that is was to accompany Jesus in the Eucharist. “It is for love that God has humbled Himself so much; that Christ transformed Himself into nourishment; that He became the means of our salvation; and the reason why He is present day and night in so many Tabernacles.”

Brothers and sisters, how can we not love the Eucharist when it is the greatest gift of His love and is a clear manifestation of His self-giving? Jesus told Saint Faustina from the Tabernacle, “Love has brought me here, and love keeps me here” (Diary, 576). To Saint Margaret Mary He said, “I have a burning thirst to be loved and honored by all in the Blessed Sacrament.”

Perpetual adoration in the Eucharist is a sublime expression of our love for Jesus, who loved us so much that He did not want to leave us; this is why He has remained with us until the end of the age in the Blessed Sacrament. “With an eternal love I have loved thee. My love for you is constant” (cf. Jer. 31:3). The greatest reason for perpetual adoration is to love the Love of all loves, to give our love to Him who has loved us first.

“It is highly fitting that Christ should have wanted to remain present to his Church in this unique way. Since Christ was about to take his departure from his own in his visible form, he wanted to give us his sacramental presence; since he was about to offer himself on the cross to save us, he wanted us to have the memorial of the love with which he loved us ‘to the end,’ even to the giving of his life. In his Eucharistic presence he remains mysteriously in our midst as the one who loved us and gave himself up for us, and he remains under signs that express and communicate this love” (CCC 1380).

In the Eucharist He Wants to Communicate this Redeeming Love to all Mankind

In his Encyclical of 1965, Mysterium Fidei, Pope Paul VI emphasized that the Eucharist is Jesus “in the midst of us day and night; He dwells in us with the fullness of grace and of truth. He raises the level of morals, fosters virtue, comforts the sorrowful, strengthens the weak and stirs up all those who draw near to Him to imitate Him” (no.67).

He is with us to actualize His saving power in each generation. He lives in the midst of us in order to sanctify us; to transform us into His image; to free us from sin, the devil, the flesh, and so many dangers that threaten us; and to lift us up by the power of His divine life, resurrecting us from all death and spiritual sterility. He is with us to calm the interior storms of our passions; to open the eyes of our souls; to break the chains of oppression, sinful habits, and attachments to the earthly things; to elevate our human potentials to celestial things; to transmit the charity and mercy of His Heart; to give us generous hearts capable of forgiving and even doing good to our enemies; to equip us, form us, heal us, restore us; to give us life and make us new creatures; and to bring the power of His presence to our hearts, families, marriages, parishes, communities, and entire societies and nations.

He is with us to dissipate darkness, for He says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (Jn 8:12). He is with us to be the light that illuminates the world that is in darkness. We live in times of great darkness, and we must lift up Him who is the Light of the world in order to dissipate it. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (Jn 1:5).

During prayer, in a vision, I saw very clearly two images. I saw a Monstrance with the Consecrated Host that was elevated in the air and from which rays of light came forth. Then I saw the map of the world, which was very dark; but suddenly, in every country and in every city, lights started to come on; there came to be so many that the darkness began to dissipate. I understood in that moment that they were chapels, Churches and oratories – all those places in which there was Perpetual Adoration of the Eucharist.

The Eucharist is the Open Fountain

“On that day there shall be open to the house of David and to the inhabitants ofJerusalem, a fountain to purify from sin and uncleanness” (Zech 13:1).

In the Letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente (TMA), the Holy Father presented one of the greatest crises of man today – his search for false saviors, false messiahs. As the prophet Jeremiah tells us, men have abandoned the open and pure fountain and they have dug wells that hold no water (Jer 2:13). The most important labor, the Holy Father told us, is to bring a humanity entrapped in the culture of death to an encounter with its Savior who, having become Incarnate two-thousand years ago in the womb of Mary, continues to offer Himself as the fountain of divine life. “Grace flows especially from the Eucharist upon us as a fountain” (cf. Sacrosanctum concilium, 61).

Today’s humanity needs to be presented with the Savior, just as the priest presents the Eucharistic Jesus saying, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” Jesus is the only One who can cleanse us in the fountain of living water from all our sins, impurities, and idolatries. In every Parish where there is Perpetual Adoration, the faithful who come to adore the Lord proclaim, “Here is the Savior and Redeemer of the world truly present in the Eucharist, the only One who is the Way, the Truth and the Life.”

The Holy Father said on June 1, 1980, in the Basilica of Montmartre inParis, where there has been Perpetual Adoration for more than 100 years, “We have come here to meet with the Heart of Jesus, pierced for us. Here we find the open fountain from which flow rivers of living water; here we find love and redeeming power. This is the mystery of the Sacred Eucharist and the mystery of the Merciful love of Christ – a mystery that is adored here day and night. In the Sacred Eucharist – and in a special sense, Perpetual Adoration – we find the movement of love from which all interior progress and apostolic efficacy come. This is why we must we must come to it regularly” (cf. no.2,4).

By adoring the Holy Eucharist, we enter in a “movement of love” that is efficacious and powerful, healing and freeing. This reminds me of the passage in the Gospel of John (5:1-15) that tells of the sick man at the pool of Bethesda(which means house of mercy). There the sick, paralyzed, blind, and lame waited for the movement of the waters in order to enter and be healed. The first to enter after the movement was healed. There Jesus encountered a man who had been sick for 38 years. But as he did not have anyone to lead him into the pool, someone else always entered before him, and thus, he was not able to be healed. Jesus healed him, saying, “Take up your mat and walk.” The Eucharist is the true House of infinite Mercy, the Heart of Jesus, the open fountain in a constant movement of grace, power, and love – where not just one is healed, but all who come to Him. “Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest” (Mt. 11:28).

Perpetual Adoration attracts Divine Mercy over the World

Saint Faustina tells us in her diary that one day, while in prayer before the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord revealed Himself to her. From His Sacred Heart came forth red and white rays which radiated His light throughout the whole Chapel. Each time someone would enter into the chapel, these rays would rest upon the person and go forth to the entire world. Jesus explained to her that each person who comes to the Blessed Sacrament represents all humanity and each individual man, woman and child in all of the world; before the His presence in the Blessed Sacrament, each one of them receives an effect of His goodness, grace, love and mercy for one another.

Jesus told her that He desired adoration of the Blessed Sacrament – which is His Heart full of mercy – to implore mercy for the world (Diary, 1070); for humanity will not have peace until it returns with confidence to His mercy. She wrote, “The mercy of God, hidden in the Blessed Sacrament, is the voice of the Lord who speaks to us from the throne of mercy: Come to Me, all of you” (Diary, 1485).

Eucharistic Adoration attracts divine mercy to the world. One day Blessed Dina Belanger was adoring the Blessed Sacrament. At the beginning of her holy hour, Jesus showed her a great multitude of souls who were in mortal sin and about to fall into hell. After her adoration, Jesus showed her the same souls now bathed in light and on their way to Heaven. The Lord showed her the power of one holy hour of adoration, reparation and intercession before the Blessed Sacrament. “It has the great power of winning graces for so many souls.”

Eucharistic Exposition Protects us from Danger

The Eucharistic Jesus is also with us to protect us from the attacks of the devil in the different ways they manifest themselves. He is here to protect us from many spiritual, physical, and material disasters – even natural disasters. In the desert, the Israelites walked in the middle of dangers under the protection of God. At night, a great column of fire illuminated and warmed them. During the day, a cloud covered them, protecting them from the sun. The Eucharist is the protection of the new people of God, the Church.

Around 527 AD, the City ofAntiochwas suddenly shaken by violent earthquakes. The people did not have any means to protect themselves other than writing on their doors the words a faithful person had received from the Lord in prayer: “Christ is with us, remain firm.” All those houses with this inscription on their doors were preserved from the ruin that endangered them; the others were destroyed.

We live threatened by many different earthquakes. Powerful ones shake and threaten the Church in many ways – the family, human life, nations. If there was power in a written phrase saying, “Christ is with us,” how much more power must exist in the Real Presence – where Christ really is with us, physically and substantially present in the Church, in cities, and in the world?

Another example took place inAvignon,Francein 1226. At that time the Albegensians were propagating great heresies with great strength. In order to repair and to remove the errors they were propagating, Perpetual Adoration was established in the Church of the Holy Cross. In 1433, there was a great flooding of theSorgueRiverand the town ofAvignonwas submerged. The friars that had care over the church knew that Jesus had been exposed for Adoration at the time of the flooding. At their own risk, they took a boat to the church to rescue the Blessed Sacrament. Upon arriving, they found the church under 4 feet of water, but from the entrance of the church to the altar was a dry path. The waters, as in theRed Sea, were parted on both sides, leaving the altar and the Eucharist untouched.

In 1906, in the town ofTumaco,Colombia, there was a major earthquake. In this small coastal town the people met to pray around their priest at the sea shore. A great tidal wave was approaching and the people were stricken with panic. The priest went into the Church, took the Blessed Sacrament to the sea, and lifted Jesus up in front of the sea. The great tidal wave stopped and the water retracted. The people were saved by the power of the Eucharist.

Another miracle is that of Saint Clare. The Saracens (Muslims) were invadingAssisiand they were drawing near Saint Damiano. The voice of the Lord promised her, “I will always defend you!” Saint Clare prayed for the city also saying, “Lord, may it please you to defend this city as well.” And the same voice responded, “The city will suffer great dangers but will be protected.” Saint Clare then took the Eucharist and went to the front window with the Monstrance and held it up. The Saracens, without a reason, fled not having caused any harm.

InMarylandin 2002, one of the worst tornado in history of this country hitMaryland. All that was in its path was totally destroyed… except a Tabernacle and the Statue of the Virgin both in a Catholic college.

Two Pillars: the Dream of Saint John Bosco

One of St. John Bosco’s most famous dreams was that of a ship on the sea being tossed about by the wind in the middle of a storm. The ship, which represented the Church, was being driven by the Peter, representing the Pope. The ship was only able to be stable if it remained anchored between two pillars. On one pillar was the Eucharist and the inscription “Salvation of Believers” and on the other was Mary with the inscription “Help of Christians.” Only when Peter guides the Church to devotion to the Eucharist and Mary will She remain firm and strong. Only then will She be firm in the faith, even though great waves crash against Her. Who are those who are faithful to the Church today? It is those who are in the ship of Peter, those who love the Eucharist and Mary. Who remains faithful? It is those who anchor their lives on these two pillars.

The Power of Intercession before the Blessed Sacrament

“So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help” (Heb 4:16). Saint Gemma Galgani told us, “Jesus is truly present in the Eucharist as He is present in Heaven where He sits on His throne.”

What a great apostolate, that of intercession before the Eucharist – presenting Christ all those who do not know Him or who are far from Him; keeping guard in His Presence; bringing the world to Christ. “Through adoration the Christian mysteriously contributes to the radical transformation of the world and to the sowing of the gospel. Anyone who prays to the Eucharistic Savior draws the whole world with him and raises it to God” (John Paul II, Letter to the Bishop of Liege, May 28, 1996, no.5).

“At no time and in no historical period – especially at a moment as critical as our own – can the Church forget the prayer that is a cry for the mercy of God amid the many forms of evil which weigh upon humanity and threaten it” (Dives in misericordia, 15).

How powerful is intercession done before the Eucharist! We are before the Real Presence of Jesus, we enter into His marvelous light, and we unite ourselves to His angels and saints who intercede for us and who unite themselves with our intercession. “May your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.”

The Renewal of the world is found in Eucharistic Adoration

Only Jesus has the power and the love to change the course of history, leading it once again into the path of peace promised to it. The Eucharist brings peace to our hearts. And peaceful hearts create a peaceful world. When he instituted this devotion in the Basilica of Saint Peter’s on December 2, 1981 the Holy Father said, “The best and most sure and effective way to establish lasting peace on earth is by means of the great power of perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament” (cf.).

Saint Peter Julian Eymard wrote, “It is necessary for the salvation of society to propagate the Eucharistic Reign of Christ. The Eucharist is the life of the individual and of all nations. We know well that an era of history prospers or denigrates itself in accordance to its devotion to the Holy Eucharist. It is the life and the fountain of its faith, its charity and its holiness. The Eucharist is essential for our personal lives and for the life of society because it is the very life of the world.”

The saint also told us, “We have to relieve Christ from His solitude in the Tabernacle so that He may be able to place Himself at the head of Christian society, so that He may guide and save it. We have to build churches and thrones; we must organize scores of faithful adorers and Eucharistic apostles. A declaration of our faith like this one – public and solemn – on the Real and Sacramental Presence of Christ is the greatest need of our time.”

Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcuttaconsistently reminded us that the time we spend in front of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is what will bring lasting and permanent peace to our families and to the whole world. The Church, society, and all things will be renewed and restored when we come together in adoration before Immanuel, “God with us!”

Power of Reparation:

Our Lord told Sister Josefa Menendez a century ago, “In my Sacrament of Love, I am thirsty. I want love for love. Love is reparation and reparation is love. When you come to me in the Blessed Sacrament, come full of love, and pray much so that many may be enflamed in love for me. Love me, love me, love me!” (cf. Way of Divine Love). These three petitions seem to be an echo of that encounter between Jesus and Peter, in which Jesus asked Peter three times, “Do you love me?” And St. Peter responded three times, “You know that I love you” (Jn 21:15-17). To three denials, there were three reparations of love.

Jesus also told Sr. Josefa, “In the midst of so much pain inGethsemanemy Heart had a great consolation: to see how, until the end of time, many would come to accompany me, to adore me, to make reparation, and to give me their love in the Blessed Sacrament” (cf. ibid.).

The Blessed Sacrament ought to be the Center of the Christian Life

The Eucharist is the “source and summit the Christian Life” (LG 11, CCC 1324). The life of every parish, every family, and each individual ought to have the Eucharist as its fountain and center. In other words, we are called to have our lives “centered on the Eucharist.” Pope Paul VI tells us in Mysterium fidei to adore the Blessed Sacrament, which ought to “serve as the spiritual center of a religious community or a parish community” (no.68). The Blessed Sacrament is the living Heart of each one of our churches.

The measure to which our family life, parishes, communities have the Eucharist as their center will be the measure by which the Reign of the Eucharistic Heart of Jesus will establish itself. This is precisely the triumph of the Immaculate Heart; each time that a parish opens its doors to Perpetual Adoration so that man, woman, children and youth may come to the Lord in the Eucharist, the triumph of the Immaculate Heart takes place. The message of the Marian apparitions – those from the past and those of the present – is that the triumph of the Immaculate Heart will culminate in the Eucharistic reign of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Eucharistic reign will come by means of Perpetual Adoration of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.

“Every member of the Church, especially Bishops and Priests, must be vigilant in seeing that this Sacrament of love shall be at the centre of the life of the People of God, so that through all the manifestations of worship due to it Christ shall be given back ‘love for love’ and truly become ‘the life of our souls’” (Redemptor hominis, 15).

So that He may truly become “the life of our souls”… This means that all of our lives must be rooted in the Eucharist. As St. Ignatius said, “Remove me completely for a moment from creatures and have me repose with Jesus in the Tabernacle which is my delight; there I can hide and rest. There I find life, something indescribable; a joy that I cannot make others understand; a peace that is only found under the roof of one’s best friend.”

The saint said that Jesus in the Tabernacle protected him from his enemies; from the evil spirits; from the world; from his passions and from his sinful inclinations. He was the strength in his weakness, his consolation in suffering, his arm as he fought, freshness in heat, food for his hungry soul, and his stimulus when tired. Jesus was his Heaven on earth, the richness in his poverty, his defense in calumnies, his crown in tribulations. The Eucharistic Jesus was his God and his all!

Saint Maximilian Kolbe said, “My object is to institute Perpetual Adoration,” because he considered it to be his “most important work.” The life of the City of the Immaculate was centered on it – “Everything begins there and ends there.”

An urgent call to the Church

InSeville,Spainduring the closing homily of the 1993 International Eucharistic Congress’s Eucharistic Vigil, Pope John Paul II said, “Yes, I hope that Perpetual Adoration with the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament will continue in the future. I especially hope that the fruit of this Congress will result in the establishment of Perpetual Adoration in all parishes and Christian communities around the entire world” (cf. June 12, no.2).

The Pope has repeatedly spoken of the great need, value and power of Eucharistic Adoration. In His Apostolic Letter Mane nobiscum Domine he wrote, “The Church and the world have great need of Eucharistic Adoration. Jesus waits for us in this Sacrament of Love. Let us be generous with our time when we go to encounter Him in adoration and contemplation, full of faith and willing to make reparation for the great faults and crimes in this world. Let us never allow our Eucharistic adoration to end” (cf. no.18).

The Holy Father established Perpetual Adoration in the Basilica of Saint Peter on December 2nd, 1981, just a few months after his attempted assassination. From the center of the Church he proclaimed, “Remain with us Lord… May all the parishes of the world establish Perpetual Adoration. The entire Church is in need of the transforming and sanctifying power of the Eucharist” (cf.).

“Adoration will heal our Church and thus our nation and thus our world…. Adoration is more powerful for construction than nuclear bombs are for destruction” (Peter Kreeft, The Angel and the Ants).

Effects of Perpetual Adoration

“This devotion prolongs and prepares in the best way, the encounter with Christ in the Eucharistic sacrifice and banquet, and is the expression of adoration and love of all of the Christian community to their Lord. From this encounter with Christ in the Sacrament, priestly, religious, missionary vocations will be born which will bear the light of the Gospel to the ends of the world. From this furnace of the “love of loves” the apostolic heart will be forged of lay Christians, witnesses of Christ in the midst of temporal realities. In the intimacy of the Tabernacle new vigor will be received that will reign in homes, making of the family, the place of encounter with God, a center of radiance of the faith, school of Christian life. In the Bread from Heaven, families will be able to find the nourishment that will keep them together during present dangers and will preserve it as a stronghold of life in the face of the culture of death” (John Paul II).

The following are just some of the many effects that come about as a result of Eucharistic Adoration.

A growth in the participation of the faithful in the Holy Mass and the reception of the sacraments

A return of brethren previously separated from the Church and an increase in the number of conversions

An increase in priestly and religious vocations

A renewal of family life

Spiritual growth and an increase in holiness among the faithful from each state in life

An awakening of great evangelization and missionary zeal that will bring forth great apostolic fruit

A greater community spirit within each parish that has its center in the true Heart of the parish – Eucharistic Jesus

Great healings of body and soul

“Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid”

The disciples entered the boat to go to the other side of the lake. As they were crossing the water, the boat began to be tossed about by strong waves. Around three o’clock in the morning, Jesus came to them walking on water. When He saw their fear, He said to them, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid”(Mt 14:22).

There are so many reasons in today’s world for us to be afraid. This is why the Holy Father, in his book Crossing the Threshold of Hope, tells us, “‘Be not afraid’…Nations need to hear [these words]…Their consciences need to grow in the certainty that Someone exists who holds in His Hands the destiny of the passing world…This someone is Love – the love that became man, Love crucified and risen, Love unceasingly present among men. It is Eucharistic Love” (p.221-222).